Adjusted EPS of $0.85 topped analyst expectations of $0.68, and the fintech raised its 2026 adjusted EPS forecast to $3.85
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Block $SQ raised its full-year 2026 guidance after reporting first-quarter adjusted earnings per share of $0.85, up 52% from a year earlier. Analyst expectations had been $0.68 per share, according to Barron's. Block stock climbed about 7% in premarket trading Friday.
Total net revenue for the quarter was $6.06 billion, up about 5% from a year ago. Gross profit reached $2.91 billion, 27% higher than last year and above the company’s guidance. The February restructuring led to $852 million in charges and legal costs, resulting in a diluted net loss of $0.52 per share.
For the full year, Block now expects adjusted EPS of $3.85, implying growth of 62% year over year. That figure cleared the analyst consensus estimate of $3.64, according to Yahoo Finance. Full-year gross profit guidance came in at $12.33 billion, good for roughly 19% year-over-year growth, with adjusted operating income expected to hit $3.34 billion — a 27% margin.
Strong showings from Cash App Borrow and commerce enablement products helped push Cash App gross profit to $1.91 billion, a 38% year-over-year gain. Origination volume in consumer lending reached $17.6 billion, more than doubling on a year-over-year basis at 82% growth. As of March, 9.7 million users qualified as Cash App Primary Banking Actives, a figure that represents an 18% year-over-year increase. On the Square side, gross payment volume hit $61.2 billion, up 13%, and gross profit rose 9% to $982 million, according to the company.
Block also reported a record adjusted operating income of $728 million for the quarter, a 56% increase year over year, and record adjusted EBITDA of $1.0 billion. Block spent $636 million buying back 10.7 million shares in the quarter; its repurchase authorization still has roughly $4.7 billion left to deploy.
The strong results follow a period of significant restructuring. The backdrop to these results includes a dramatic workforce reduction: Block eliminated approximately 4,000 positions — 40% of its total headcount — earlier this year, a decision Dorsey tied directly to what AI-powered tooling now makes possible for leaner engineering teams. "A significantly smaller team, using the tools we are building, can do more and do it better," Dorsey said in the shareholder letter accompanying Thursday's earnings report. "We were early and deliberate in this strategy."
Dorsey also highlighted productivity gains tied to AI adoption. "Production code changes per engineer are up over 2.5x compared to January," he wrote.
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